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We are on the verge of a healthcare crisis in America. It is apparent that the cost of prescription drugs in this country is skyrocketing out of control, and it saddens me that government is at the root of the problem…What we are experiencing today is in no way a failure of capitalism, but rather a failure of government…as it stands, federal government regulations have made it so that pharmaceutical companies can charge whatever they want for…medications, If we really want to lower the cost of prescription drugs in this country, we must allow competition to flourish. This will make it so that all drug companies have to set fair prices in order to compete…

India may house drug testing laboratories in each state under an INR17.5 billion ($270 million) plan to shore up quality… the aim is to have at least one dedicated drug testing laboratory in every state, with 10 states currently not equipped with any testing services for drugs… India approved the spending to upgrade its federal and state drug regulation system with approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs…funds, to be spent…on items such as new laboratories and a training academy for regulatory and drug testing officials, are seen as crucial to fixing quality issues that have bedeviled manufacturers and testing firms.

Innovate Pharmaceuticals has launched…shelf-stable liquid aspirin, and says it is on the look-out for a licensing partner for the "$500m" market…. Innovate worked with chemicals company Croda for five years on engineering excipients to make what it calls a "truly liquid" aspirin. The pharma firm claims its product allows faster and more complete absorption than other delivery routes, "resulting in potentially drastic reductions in gastric side effects."

…Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations finalized today could affect the cost of health care in significant ways…the United States and its 11 Pacific Rim trade partner countries finalized what will be the largest regional trade accord in history…Negotiations were stalled and then extended due in large part to differences over the appropriate amount of time that pharmaceutical companies should enjoy market exclusivity for a new drug…US negotiators eventually conceded and agreed that brand-name drug manufacturers would have a market exclusivity period of 5 to 8 years…current GPhA president…said the agreement brings the generics industry closer to "improv[ing] worldwide patient access to affordable medicines [by] embracing competition from safe, effective biosimilar therapies."...

Increasing public use of online pharmacies, along with a new mass producer of fake medicines, have widened the global market for falsified drugs…. John Clark.. heads up Pfizer's Global Security team…has a question for doctors: do you know where your patients get their drugs from?...The official term for these types of medicines is spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit drugs….developing countries are more than aware of with estimates of the prevalence of counterfeit drugs in some parts of Africa and Asia reaching as high as 70%...it's hard to find a drug that's not being copied or falsified...Counterfeit drugs have been found in 124 countries across all continents and between 2011–14 more than 55 million doses were seized by authorities.

Mail, pizza, now medicine: Some health care systems are allowing patients to get their discharge medication delivered while they are still in the hospital… main focus was on patient education and medication counseling…the program allows for more quality time with patients to make sure their medications are safe and effective for them…"When we deliver medications to patients’ bedsides immediately prior to discharge, patients seem more willing to listen and learn about their medications than when they are at a retail pharmacy in the community,"

Clients are turning their backs on low-cost economies like India and returning to Infa Group, the Italian API maker says…Economies such as India and China have been viewed as low-cost alternatives to Europe and the US for the supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, but over the past few years, pharma’s changing demands – coupled with concerns over a drop in quality standards – are seeing some customers return back West…This is certainly the case for the Infa Group, one of many European API makers… has seen a number of its main clients return from Asia...

Pharma and biotech firms not using ‘green chemistry’ to make their products incur higher costs and risk losing market share… There is considerable drug industry interest in ‘green chemistry’ processes that improve efficiency and cut waste – at least that is according to the corporate social responsibility reports issued by firms like Pfizer, GSK and Roche…Whether these efforts are PR – so called greenwashing - or genuine is difficult to judge…while some drugmakers are investing to try and be environmentally-friendly others, particularly smaller biotechs, have yet to commit to greener manufacturing.

Drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp agreed to buy PharMEDium Healthcare Holdings Inc for $2.58 billion…expanding its business of supplying compounded drugs to hospitals…"PharMEDium brings ABC a complementary service line that is undergoing a growth renaissance as hospitals more aggressively outsource compounded sterile needs in wake of new government regulations,"…

...cleanup of the former American Cyanamid drug manufacturing site in Bridgewater, NJ, has been ongoing for decades. But the EPA this week presented Pfizer with a bill for its share of the cost of cleaning up the superfund site…Justice Department said that the drugmaker has agreed to pay $194 million for the cleanup of 6 disposal areas at the 575-acre site. It will chip in an additional $1 million to reimburse the EPA for costs the agency has already paid out for overseeing cleanup work at the 100-year-old site.